Tuesday, June 21, 2011

When The Golf Channel decided to give David Feherty his own show -- 'Feherty' premiered Monday night and is on again Tuesday at 9 p.m. in what will be its regular time slot -- it provided the popular golf announcer an outlet for his humor, his personality and his insights.

There's a brilliance to Feherty that makes him both entertaining and insightful. The idea of the show is to capture much of what Feherty has to offer but doesn't fit into his role as a reporter on tournament weekends.

A recently nationalized American citizen, Feherty is deeply devoted to the armed forces, particularly to soldiers who have been injured in combat. It's his great passion and the show allows him an opportunity to draw attention to the soldiers he admires.

It also allows Feherty to interview some of the game's biggest figures. He started with Lee Trevino in the premiere episode and has Tom Watson and Johnny Miller, among others, lined up. Feherty wants to talk about golf but he also wants to talk about life, coming at the interview from his own unique perspective.

Feherty's goal is to get Tiger Woods to sit down for an extended interview. While it would be great for his show, Feherty admits, he thinks it would help Woods, too. So far, Feherty has been unsuccessful in landing the Tiger interview.

"I'm sorry we just hammered on him so much that whatever we did to him, we forced him into a hole. It's not all our fault, obviously. You've got to be able to stand up and deal with these things," Feherty said.

"The worst thing in the world was not being Tiger Woods. It was okay for a long time and it's probably still okay but I think he would be a lot happier if he got a bunch of (stuff) off his chest and was asked the right questions and given the right forum in which to answer them. He doesn't trust so many people.

"We expect so much from him. I don't think anybody can possibly understand how he feels at the minute because no one has been where he's been and come down to where he is now. The level of frustration, the level of disappointment he must feel, I don't think there's been another athlete, I can't think of one, that would have gone through such a thing.

"It doesn't matter whose fault it is at the end of the day. That's irrelevant. You were here and now you're there and you're hurt. It would be very easy to feel the world is against you. I suspect he doesn't feel like that but I know he's like a badger in his set right now. He's not coming out, not for anybody."

If he were to land the interview, what would Feherty ask Woods?

"I'd ask him if he could change one thing in his life, what would it be?," Feherty said.

"I would ask if he confused fun with happinesss, thinking they're the same thing. I'm an addict and that's what I did. I thought fun and happiness were the same thing. They're not. They're entirely different. That's a common thing among all addicts. They get those two things mixed up. What happens when you blend fun and happiness? It turns into unhappiness."

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comments:

That's an interview I'd love to see. What I don't want to see is an interview with Johnny Miller. If you listen to Miller talk about himself, you will come away with the impression that Miller is Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods all rolled into one. How this blowhard gets his head through doorways with that ego is amazing. I wish NBC would stop televising golf and that all other networks would make sure they didn't hire Miller. Miller's constant talk about himself had me flipping channels all weekend.